BOARDS GOLF SOCIETY KILKEA CASTLE JUNE 19. @ 12:28

spacecoyote

Back to a good old fashioned society day out with a bang.

Had the pleasure of 2 former Captains, Benny and Break80 alongside a former captain's prize winner Alanm.

A great day of weather, and great company all the way round.

A round of highs and lows for me, drove the ball, on the whole, very well, hit some good irons too. But really struggled around the greens. Chipping was patchy, and really struggled over the long putts for pace on the greens, resulting in 5 or 6 3-putts.

Had a purple patch in holes 6-9 where I had 3 birdies in 4 holes. But everything was pretty mediocre either side of it. Highlight for my day in terms of shots hit was my second ball shots on the 12th. About a 270yrd drive followed by a 250yrd 5wood approach to the par 5. As per the rest of the round though, it was followed up with a 3 putt. 31 points with 3 birdies on the card was a bit hard to take and could have been a lot better with a bit more luck.

Break80 had the Captains curse of bad golf on his first round. Had a tough front 9, but played a lot steadier on the back. Still had to hand over the money at the end of the round though.

Alanm, I think, burnt himself out playing his 2nd 18 of the day after what sounds like a great round on his home course. As per usual, his short game and putting were superb, but a few too many loose tee shots combined with not a lot of shots to play with meant he was always going to be battling to put together a big score.

Benny, the home club man, was a good guide on the day, and he played some great golf the whole way around. 39 points for him, that could have been considerably more. Immaculate for the first 8 holes, before a blip on 9. Bounced back and continued the great golf for the back 9 up until the 16th. Limped home a bit, bit great to see him scoring well and seeming to turn his round around a bit.

Was fantastic to see a few familiar faces as well as meet a couple of new ones on the day.

Looking forward to the next one lads, it's great to be back!!!

benny79

I second what space said! Great to be back on tour again and the race to the Ryder jug is on Great weather, great company and truly a great course I think all would agree!

I had the first descent round in a very long time and I still am buzzing as I write this.. 88 strokes and I had it down as counting so its 9 shots better then my last counting 8 on the golf Ireland app so hopefully a good cut.. I felt so in control of my game, right from the off and I struggle on the first 4 holes regularly but I couldn't have asked for a better start. chipping was good, pitching was good, my putting was good it was all there! woods I'm still struggling a bit with.. Just swing through the bleeding ball Benny!

but have to say a bit of a blip on 9 my second favourite hole! recovered well, till are bear trap 16-18. Many a card ruined here! but I limped through it. Apart from 17 my nemesis.. great drive over the water middle of fairway (hard work done!) 7I in and pull it into the high stuff! played a Provo and hit the exact same shot! :mad: luckily this one was just a little short.. chip onto green under the tree a bleeding 3 putt! my only one of the day for a scratch.. The demons were starting in my head from 16 as I knew I had a very good round going.. So a little disappointed with my finish but delighted I shot a good round and more so I was in so much control of it! Swing through that bloody driver Benny!

All in All it was get to be back with boards see all the lads and ladies and good to have a lot of new member's and see some new ones from last year return!

Sadly I couldnt stick around which I love to do! but hope everyone enjoyed themselves!

Congrats to Concerned & Offalymedic! my 39 pts would of won many an outing!

Break80 our Captain 1 down 5 to go

Tiger and Break80 thanks for the money boys beats winning taking money of you two girls any day! ..lol..

See yeah all at Fota! Another super course and former Irish open venue!

B

Snackbox20

Absolutely delighted to be back out playing some society golf and what a day and course to start off boards for 2021 and hopefully we will see out the remaining courses for this year.
Had the pleasure of playing with Pakman again and it was great to meet BallyK, fair play to him for recording the cards and totting them up at the end. Great to see some familiar faces too and afterwards.
The course played fantastic today and I was happy with my game, had a few shoulda woulda couldas on 2nd shots and some putts that I should have eaten an extra Weetabix this morning. Happy with a final score of 33 and 2 axe wounds grrrrr. My shot of the round was a gross albatross on the 17th index 1, milled a new 3w over the trap and shot an 8I into the green dinkihg the flag to leave inches to tap in birdie, made the card look respectable in the end.
Really enjoyed today and great credit and thanks to Captain Break80 for organising and I believe Benny helped getting Kilkea at short notice.
Congratulations to Concerned2, Offalymedic, and Benny for great scores worthy to win any event, and the winners of the nearest to pin and long drives.
Roll on Fota and see you all next month.

slave1

44, holy crap Batman, some score.
Great bit of heat today, just too many loose shots from me and apart from a two the rest of the par 3s killed me.
Still, great company and onto Fota we go

OffalyMedic

Thanks Break80 and committee for organising yesterday. It’s great to be back and catching up with the familiar faces and the new faces. It was a cracker of a day, always great when you can play in shorts and T-shirt!
I played Kilkea for the first time with boards last year and loved it, couldn’t believe I didn’t know about this hidden gem and it’s only 35mins from home. I loved the place so much I even booked it for our wedding next year !!

Now back to the golf. Had then pleasure of playing with APostPunk and Slave1. Both of the lads hit some great shots today but a couple of loose tee shots meant for a few to many scratches to shoot a score unfortunately.
I’ve been hitting the ball relatively well lately and with the course rating had a couple of extra shots which I think I got confidence from. My driver was splitting every fairway and I was striking my irons as pure as I have in years so on a tight track I managed to stay out of trouble most of the time which lead to a decent score thankfully.
Just had one of those days and my highlight if I had to choose was after hitting longest drive I proceeded to scratch the hole with 2 poor iron shots (lost 1 right and lost provo left!) I played the next 5 holes in +1gross, many a time before I’d have played those in +7 or more to ruin a score so thrilled to keep the head and plough on.

Sorry that went on longer than I planned but I want to finish by saying a big well done to concerned2 on an amazing score. Thought I was a cert to win my 2nd ever boards event only to be pipped at the post.

Great day and looking forward to Fota

Concerned2

What better way to spend a Saturday than on a beautiful course , out in marvelous weather playing with great company in TigerWood1 and Boccy23. I had absolutely no expectation of shooting the score I got , I was just hoping I wouldn't embarrass myself ! I really just had a very solid day out , kept the ball in play off the tee and putted ok but really the fireworks came from Tiger. He was ever so close to a hole in 1 on one of the par 3's and on the last he had a scary down hill putt for birdie that he ratted in with some conviction, his namesake would have been proud of that !
Thanks to the lads who put the hard work into organizing the event , hope to meet you all again in Fota.
P.S. Its about 17 years since I last won anything in Golf , I reckon ye have nothing to worry about in the remaining events

a post punk

Well done Concerned on a convincing win, I thought I was in the group to produce a winner again ( Thats never me ) with Offalymedics 42 points..I didnt actually realise until the end that Offalymedic had such a good score!! Thanks to Slave and Offalymedic it was a very enjoyable day in great weather on a great course.
I was actually playing good enough except for a few snap tee shots and couldnt rally to get anything out of those holes after that. My own highlight was a chip in on the first par3 for par after putting my tee shot in the hazard( a very rare sight )
Just on the course I thought the greens were excellent , really true if you had a good putt!! The 17th is a great golf hole , really unique and a real risk reward hole if you have the guns and the nerve to carry the water.
I tried adding a pic from my gps yesterday of a 3 wood downwind on the par 5 -12th hole I reckoned 240 it carried but it was 261!! That normally goes 190 max
Anyway good to be back and catch up with the boardsies
PP

RoadRunner

Great day with Fix(dePitchmark) and Bren2001.
Fix, the best driver of the ball I've ever seen, boomed a beautifully faded drive around the corner off the first tee to leave a wedge in which he stitched. Meanwhile I scuttered a 3wood which felt and looked terrible (somehow still managed to find fairway) followed by a thinned mid iron to bunker long & right. While Bren knocked down two into the trees right, found provo and made a few more swings before recording a scratch.

Agreeing with fix for a tenner bet before we started - it began ominously for me. But Fix started pulling a few irons and hybrids and we quickly learned you can't miss left on many of these opening holes. The sun shone on us the whole way around and chatter was fun and interesting (Bren having some particularly exotic work travel destinations in the past couple of years :eek: )

Bren played much better after a few holes. Fix, always the danger man, fought for our tenner like his dinner depended on it. He scored an incredible birdy on the index 1 17th (stunning hole!). Myself and Fix both scratched the 18th with wayward tee shots. It's a shame to scratch such a lovely hole. The final shot into the castle as the descending white ball is highlighted against the timeless stone walls and lit chandeliers behind is one of the most stunning scenes in Irish golf and one of the most unique second shots in the world. I already can't wait to play it again and very jealous of Benny who's lucky enough to play this every week!

Break80

AND WE'RE OFF.

Great course, fabulous weather, in the company of friends You couldn't ask for more.
I am delighted everything went off without a hitch.

Well done to Concerned2 with an unbeatable score on a deceptively tough course.
Commiserations to Offaly Medic with a score that would have won any other day. To be fair you can't win everything Longest drive, nearest the pin and second place is taking the pee a little bit to be honest.
Ex Captain and organiser of the day came in with a fighting third place and took the money from me and tiger, the less said about this the better I think. Solid round of golf fair play.

My first drive as Captain ended up in the water at the front of the tee box so that set the tone for the day.
Do I care? Not even a little bit.

It is just a thrill to meet up, have a laugh and wash all we went through the past 18 months under the bridge never to be seen again.

Finally I have to thank SeveOB for sorting the handicaps for everyone who played and Ballyk who had all the cards sorted by the time I got in. It's very much appreciated Lads.

That's about it Golfers.

Fota Island is the next one. About 15mins for me WHOO HOO.

Looking forward to it already.

BREAK 80

boccy23

Has taken me a while to gather my thought. 19 points will do that to you!

First outing with fellow Boardsie's and it was super enjoyable as my kids would say. Played with Tiger and concerned 2and was very happy to bring him home. To be fair, Concerned 2 was as steady as hell, scored on every hole, saw every fairway and had the speed of the greens from the very first. Tiger was a bit up and down (probably all the Pitch & Putt ) but the highs were great as Concerned 2 pointed out, 1 foot from the hole on the 10th and an excellent birdie on the closing hole in front of the castle.

The weather on the day was amazing. Really why I love golfing in Ireland, not too hot although the breeze seemed to appear from nowhere when it came to 16 and trying to cross the river (again) and pitch onto what looked like an aircraft carrier from 180 yards away.

My driving was desperate and never gave me a chance. Kilkea is no overly long as such, but straight, you have to be. Concerned 2 proved that. And straight, I was most definitely not. Put me out of too many holes to get any score going. The greens were superb, really fast at times of facing a downhill left to righter, the bunkers were in really good knick and course overall was in great shape. If I did have a small gripe, I dislike courses leaving that grass not too far off the fairway getting so thick and overgrown that you can be really penalised while no more than 10 yards off the fairway. Also think that it slows down progress as you spend time looking or even having to go back and reload as we saw someone having to.

But that is a small matter on an overall superb day.

Thanks to the real captain, Break 80, Benny, Seve OB and all the others for making the day.

Now onto somewhat home ground in Fota.

Hope to see even more of you there.

Boccy

Seve OB

Bit late posting myself, but been kinda busy! My golf has been not much better than OK lately. A mixed bag with some really good stuff but just no consistency, however I just shot a solid 36 points on Wednesday and was feeing good. I was up for a major winners prize in my home club (2020 roll over) and I won 2 of the 8 spots last year so had a great chance. Thankfully I was able to play that on the Friday spill over and attend Kilkea on the Saturday. I sat for over an hour and a half in traffic on Friday and ran up onto the tee box just making my time and having to phone the pro shop to check in was not a good start and I duly scuttered my first shot off the tee. A 3 putt on the second was followed by having to run back down the fairway on the 3rd after loosing a ball behind the green (strokes). A lost ball on the 4th..... I was gone, still catching my breath for at least 9 holes after the race to get there and came home with +24

So I started Saturday with very low expectations if I'm honest, and then what do I do only shank one off the first tee. An ok recovery still left me a long way out into a headwind and my approach came up a fair bit short. Chipped well but left a very long putt.... drained it And that was the story of the day, my game off the tees which has been my strong point of late deserted me and I got my scoring game in play. I just kept finding trouble off the tee though & Kilkea is tight and trouble off the tees is not easily recovered from and I had to take my medicine and chip out sideways maybe 6 or 7 times Also got lucky on a few tee shots to be fair, so it could have been worse, but I managed to bring home a solid 36 points to earn a few decent Ryder Jug points.

Highlight was probably my birdie on the long drive hole (index 2 I think) with a headwind off the tee, I caught hold of my best drive of the day and smashed a low one long, to be honest, I think it would have been hard to beat but it was a yard off the fairway A flick of a 9 iron to 10 foot or so and and nice little breaking put just dropped in the side door.

Hardest hole was near the PIN, serious headwind when we were playing it, I took 5 iron, and got pin high but in the crap on the left and was lucky to find and scramble a point. No scratches on the day was a good sign and the only 3 putt was the last hole with a really difficult pin placement on the day.

I had a very enjoyable round with Woody and kiith, neither of whom I'd had the pleasure with before but as usual with the boards.ie crew they were great company with the usual mix of banter great golf, some terrible stuff and a few laughs. Kilkea is a class place. Turns out according to my missus I attended a Wedding there a lonnnngggggggg time ago, but other than the 2 boards outings I didn't remember, but what a fantastic setup this place is. A great course with enough opportunities to have a good game and plenty of room to make the card wrecking errors. Benny is very lucky playing this place on a regular basis. Sorry I had to rush off after but had a family engagement (seldom enough these days).

Sunday was fun too, got a late call to represent the club in Pierce Purcell. Last match out at home with a partner who I never met before which was not a good start in foresomes! We were 3 down after 3. fought hard and got back to all square through 9 and 2 up through 11. But a little wobble and then recovery and we were back to 2 up through 14. By now it was all riding on our game, away had finished 1 a piece as had the 2 games in front of us. Indeed the away games had finished so early they were already back following us around so we had a decent gallery of maybe 30. I flushed the best drive I've hit in years down the par 5 15th and our opposition was not impressed as he declared I had "made his mind up" and put away his rescue and took out his driver. He found trouble though, but the advantage of a gallery meant a very likely lost ball was found and they were able to lay up nicely. We had about 190 yards to pin but my man opted to lay up (a mistake, but I couldn't pull rank really as I didn't know his game) I hit a nice approach shot but adrenaline fuelled his putt as he chased it nearly 10 foot past and I missed the one back. 1 up. Lost 16 and halved 17. So all square standing on the 18th tee and they find trees. All I needed was my man to find the short grass (a wedge would have nearly been enough) and I was relishing my approach to the green, but he hooked it into cabbage. I was however able to play a good lay up to about 60 yards and the opposition were in a greenside bunker with a very difficult pin on the near side of a downhill sloping 2 tiered green. They couldn't hold the top tier and their approach putt came up about 5 foot short after 5 strokes. I cosied a stinking left to right big downhill breaker close to leave about 2.5 foot for our 5. But there was no giving anything at this stage. At least not until their putt horse shoed out to send us into the next round.

Seve OB

Here are the full results from Kilkea folks